Microsoft Dynamics AX the Choice for Multi-Tool Manufacturer Leatherman Tool Group

You've seen Leatherman multi-tools. They are those rugged, foldable tools with everything (depending which model you buy) from a full-sized plier to a bottle opener, knife, an emergency whistle, and a ferro rod for building a fire.

The company's rugged name is not clever marketing; Leatherman Tool Group was co-founded in 1983 by Tim Leatherman. After graduating from a Oregon State University with a degree in mechanical engineering, he traveled through Europe in what he calls an untrustworthy $300 Fiat. He used his Boy Scout knife often for minor repairs but remarked, "I kept wishing I had a pair of pliers!" and designed a multi-tool with just the capabilities he needed.

Now 32 years later, the company offers several dozen models of multi-tools, pocket tools, knives, and accessories. It operates just one retail location near its Oregon manufacturing plant but deals through dozens of retailers like Sears, Grainger, Sports Authority, Dick's Sporting Goods, Target, and Walmart, to name a few. The challenge: each of those retailers has its own demands for packaging. "One product can go in a clamshell, a box, a clamshell with a sensor or another a clamshell with a special label," describes Travis Pierce, Leatherman's director of information technology. So, any one multi-tool model like its 19-tool Signal requires almost as many iterations as Leatherman has dealers.

The company ran for 20 years on a green-screen QAD system. "QAD was a good product that got the company up to that point," says Pierce. "But the business was shifting more into retail, and we needed an ERP system that could support that along with everything else we do, including manufacturing, distribution, shipping and ...